what upgrades will my freind need

[lhys09915]

my freind has had a pc built by a computer shop.he told him it was for games but i have had a look and think he needs some upgrades.

he has onboard graphics 64meg
224meg ram
cpu speed is 2.4ghz
xp pro

i have told him he needs at least 512meg ram
and a better card.i told him he can get the same card as i have.geforce fx5600 8xagp 256meg for £125

 

[VIPER_1069]

BETTER graphics card is an understatement ....he has NO graphics card as such its ONBOARD ie. its on the motherboard chipset

never great as this is shared with the 224meg ram he has in there it looks like he has really got 256 meg of ram onboard and 32mb of it is allocated at the moment for graphics so technically he is not even running the onboard graphics to full capacity

A real proper graphics card would give back the memory to the system, A 256meg graphics card is rather a lot unless you are a seriously heavy gamesplayer !? a card of 128mb or even a 64mb card as minimum would no doubt suffice so long as its a good chipset for most gaming needs im sure for at least most games out there ?! at least its a cheaper solution than a 256mb one !?, it all depends on how serious he wants to play games ?! and how much money hes prepared to throw at the project !?

Another note here is the more you get into gaming the more HARD DISK SPACE you will also need as many games take 3 maby 4 or more cds worth of stuff or even more with dvd disc distributed games being more popular than ever so that may or may not need upgrading in time depending on how much space he has in this system !?

My guess is that if hes gone for a prebuilt spec system It's because its cheaper than a custom built system as more often than not pre built systems are a couple of hundred £'s/$'s cheaper

See what he wants to spend .... and see what and how serious he wants to be at gaming !? the other thing to remember if he wants SERIOUS online gaming the only real way to get the most is to have a BROADBAND connection also as this avoids the mental and fustration pain of being slaughtered by people on faster connections before you know it

I'm sure our other gaming GURU'S here can add a whole heap more information as to what boards are best etc

Let us know what he wants outta the machine and financial situation etc and we can advise more

 

[banzibaby]

Yep, he will need more to run XP smoothly, might have 2 check the motherboard can handle the GF FX, CPU is good, mem minimum should be 512mb like U say, also if it onboard sound might be better with sound card, but once he got all the kit, he will then prolly better settin up XP again to save on any potential hardware probs, then turn off unneeded services in the computer management console, then his games will be smooth & i will be jealous lol

BaNzI

 

[The-poacher]

Not a gamer myself but yep loadsa ram & a top notch graphics card <> no doubt the games boyos will let u know their ideas

 

[stevie_boz]

Yup a better grahics card and some more ram is needed especially for the latest & future games. The fx5600 is a good budget card but if he has the cash i would consider the radeon 9800xt or the fx5950 ultra, they are the top cards out there at the mo. The main question will be if the motherboard can support these cards.

 

[LTR12101B]

I just hope it has an AGP SLOT - no AGP = no hope - as although you CAN get a somewhat lukewarm performance card in PCI - Radoen 9000, maybe 9200 have been spotted in PCI, they are hampered compared to the same card in AGP.

A good DX8 class card is the Geforce 4 Ti4200, or the Radeon 8500 ate prices that would make those who bought them when they were top of the range truly weep.

If DX9 is the target (and now it probably should be) then the Geforce FX range and The Radeon 9500 and up are DX9 capable - though the FX5200 is probably too slow to be useful - Radeon seems to hold most of the aces in DX9.

http://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/ - keep watch here - a set of one-day specials at discounts to their normal prices, often includes graphics cards

 

[plextorman]

I agree with your choice of graphics card there LTR..GF4 Ti4200..Probably the best value for money card in the world at the moment IMO!! At the moment I`ve got mine OC`ed to the tested error free maximum 600/300 (Now it`s a Ti4200 that thinks it`s a Ti4600!! )
I used 3DMark03-submitted the results to their database and compared the result to the other cards in my class and I was the fourth best-only finishing marginally behind three other machines which were P4 3ghz+ based monsters,seein` as mine`s only a 2ghz AMD with 512mb RAM(NForce2 Ultra mb) I`d say that`s damn good going!
What do you guyz think?

 

[dx]

Indeed GeForce4 Ti4200s are excellent deals on a DX8 card. Had one and loved every minute of it.

But if you want a DX9 card ATI is the way to go. After 4x nVidia cards over the years, I recently moved up to a ATI 9800 Pro... which was an excellent deal for $260 USD. You see they are stopping production on this former $400 card in favour of the 9800XT. It's almost as fast, but the XT is a better overclocker. Well worth a look if it's not out of is price range.

But he'll be suprised at how much performance he can get out of a simple vid card upgrade.